‘Never read your own press’ so goes the sage old line. It’s clearly one that Guy Fieri forgot about as he found himself defending his new restaurant in New York’s Times Square following a critical mauling at the hands of the The New York Times.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that the savage beating given to Fieri’s Guy’s Kitchen & Bar by the paper including some 34 rhetorical questions, with writer Peter Wells attacking every aspect of the TV chef’s menu. Let’s have a read of some highlights shall we?

1. “GUY FIERI, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square? Have you pulled up one of the 500 seats at Guy’s American Kitchen Bar and ordered a meal? Did you eat the food? Did it live up to your expectations?"
2. The Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders “tasted like chewy air”.
3. The watermelon margarita? "like some combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde." (Sounds like how we cook here at Contact.)
4. The Cajun Chicken Alfredo contained "ghostly nubs of unblackened, unspiced white meat."

Fieri fought back. The host of Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives commented to the Today show "I just thought it was ridiculous. I mean, I've read reviews -- there's good and there's bad in the restaurant business. But that to me went so overboard, it really seemed like there was an agenda.” He continued "Do I think I'm falling short? No. By no means. I'm doing the type of food that America loves and we're doing it right way. Could we have made mistakes? Do we make mistakes? Absolutely. Do we strive to be the best? Yes. To me it's impossible to have a dining experience and have every single thing wrong -- unless you come in with a different agenda and you want to sensationalize something and you want to blow it out of the water. It's a great way to make a name for yourself! Go after a celebrity chef that's not a New Yorker.” Wells’ summary of Fieri’s eatery? “Poor”.